Disney Is Suing 3 Chinese Firms for Copying Parts of ‘Cars’

Walt Disney has taken three Chinese firms to court over concerns local animation “The Autobots” copied elements from Disney’s own hit movie “Cars,” as the U.S. firm looks to protect its drive into the world’s second-largest economy.

A court in Shanghai held a hearing on Tuesday, a Disney spokeswoman confirmed to Reuters. The dispute was over “copyright infringement” and “unfair competition,” according to a notice on the Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Court website.

Disney dis is making a major push into China with the recent opening of a $5.5 billion theme park in Shanghai, its first on the mainland, while its animated movies including “Zootopia” and “Big Hero 6” have been big box office hits in the country.

The iconic U.S. firm, however, faces tough competition in the market from local theme park developers, popular Chinese animations as well as counterfeits from merchandise to fake Disney hotels. Chinese authorities have promised to give Disney “special” trademark protection.

“The Autobots” drew ire from netizens in China when it was released last year, with some pointing out similarities with Disney’s 2006 film “Cars” starring Owen Wilson and its sequel in 2011. “Cars 3” is penciled in to be released next year.

Zuo Jianlong, the director of “The Autobots” for production company Blue MTV, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday he was “relaxed” about a potential ruling.

“Lots of people online have talked about plagiarism, but it seems from the legal side that the matter is quite clear—at root there is no plagiaristic behavior,” he said.

“If you put the two films side-by-side to compare them, then you will know they are completely different.”

Disney declined to comment further on the case.

The Chinese film is about animated racing cars including main heroes K1 and K2, while Disney’s offering follows the story of legendary racing car Lightning McQueen.

The three Chinese firms involved in the suit are production company Blue MTV, media company Beijing G-Point, and online content platform PPLive.

An official for Beijing G-Point, who gave her name only as Ms Cheng, said the firms had hoped to reach a settlement, but Disney had been opposed to this. She added G-Point was not involved in production, but rather in the film’s distribution.

Reuters could not immediately reach PPLive for comment.

China’s box office hit around 45 billion yuan ($6.8 billion) last year, and is growing fast, a lure for overseas studios to tap into the market despite a cap on imported films, censorship concerns and a rising challenge from locally made movies.

‘Finding Dory’ Has Already Broken Multiple Box Office Records

Finding Dory is wrapping up its opening weekend by breaking a few records.

The movie, a sequel released 13 years after the original Finding Nemo, has surpassed analyst expectations. According to a previous Fortune report, it was projected to bring in as much as $120 million. USA Today reports that, according to studio estimates, it made $136.2 million.

With that number Finding Dory became the biggest opening weekend for an animated film, a PG-rated film, and a Pixar film. The first two records had previously been set at $121.6 million for DreamWorks’ Shrek the Third, released in 2007. Before Finding Dory, the biggest opening weekend for a Pixar movie had been Toy Story 3, which raked in $110.3 million for its 2010 debut.

“Finding Dory just showed total domination this weekend,” comScore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian told USA Today. He described it as a “spectacular debut, bigger than anyone expected.” It made over $100 million more than this weekend’s next most popular movie, Central Intelligence, which took in $34.5 million.

Toy Story 3 still holds the record for highest-grossing Pixar film, making $1.06 billion globally. With this impressive debut, Finding Dory could be on track to top that record as well.

How Pixar Quietly Dominates the Oscars—Year after Year

When it comes to the Oscars, no one has ruled quite as dominantly as Pixar.

The animation studio once again picked up the Academy Award for Best Animation Sunday night – the eighth time it has won the top prize. (Brave, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, WALL-E Up and Toy Story 3 are Pixar’s other Oscar-winning films.)

Add in the power of Disney’s dis resurgent Walt Disney Animation Studios, which captured Best Animated Feature awards for Big Hero Six last year and Frozen in 2014, and the mouse house’s streak is even more impressive.

In fact, in the 15 year history of the Best Animation Oscar, a Pixar or Disney Animation title has taken home the prize 10 times. And only three people have been honored twice by the Academy in that field – Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, and Brad Bird, all of whom are Pixar employees.

Pixar, of course, is a Disney property, having been purchased in January 2006 for $7.4 billion. And John Lasseter, the former CEO of Pixar (who was, ironically, fired from Disney in 1983 for promoting computer animation over hand-drawn films), now oversees both his original company and Walt Disney Animation Studios. So, by some calculations, he’s really able to claim victory for any recent Disney win.

Beyond the awards they’ve garnered, Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios are cash machines for Disney. Here’s how each Oscar winning film has performed at the box office (per Box Office Mojo):

That’s nearly $3 billion when added together (a number which doesn’t include lucrative home video sales and even more lucrative merchandise sales). But don’t think the Academy Awards are a result to that box office success.

Will Pixar and Disney continue the winning ways next year? We wouldn’t rule it out. Up next from the studio is Finding Dory, the sequel to 2003’s Best Animated film – with the same crew helming the story.